Countdown to Common App!

For those of you in the throes of the college admissions process, or those lucky enough to be spectating from a safe distance, mark your calendars! The Common App goes live on Thursday, August 1.  This is the time to spend an hour looking over the way it is structured, get familiar with moving around within it, and finalize your list. Herewith, a few tips to help wrestle the Common App into submission and a link to a very helpful Powerpoint on this brand-new version:

• CA4: First Look Webinar PowerPoint Presentation
• If you haven't yet looked at the new essay prompts, those can be found online prior to 8/1, as in at this very moment. As I discussed in my last blog entry, the topic of your choice prompt is conspicuously absent, so your story has to fit into one of the new prompts. It's not as hard as it may seem.
• In some districts, the Common App "talks" to Naviance, so make sure your list of schools is the same on both sites.
• Check and double check all your deadlines. And then check them again.
• The Common App will ask if you want to self-report test scores and dates, so be mindful as to whether your schools participate in Score Choice, allowing you to choose your best test date, or if they expect to see all your test scores. They will still require you send official score reports.
• New this year is the chance to submit an app to one school, then return to the Common App and change some elements, including deleting your test scores for test-optional schools. 
• The Common App has an app, so you can check on some elements on the run. You should not enter any real data on a device though; stick to the desktop, with no diversions around you, when entering data or uploading essays. 
• In my college advisory practice, I encourage students to create a word doc for all their essay prompts- Common App essay, all supplements and non-Common App schools. This way, using some text from one essay in another is easier, deciding to work on your essays means having everything in one place, and it helps you stay on top of it all. Be sure to back up the file; email it to a parent or save to a flash drive as you work on it. Also, essays are no longer uploaded; they are cut and pasted or typed directly into the text box instead. 
• EC data is also easier to enter and move around. Be sure to be honest about your hours of participation; inflating them is never worth the risk of being called out on it.
• Check everything over at least twice. Be sure you don't explain your great affection for School A in an essay for School B. It's been done... 
• Have everything for RD deadlines ready to go when you submit your ED app. A denial or deferral can take the wind from your sails, and make it tough to get motivated to finish up other applications.